The popular American podcaster Joe Rogan has damned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his attacks on Canadian truckers during the February Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.
Rogan called Trudeau a “creepy dictator” on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with Canadian academic and author Gad Saad on Thursday, saying the prime minister’s behavior belies Canada’s friendly reputation and his own image as a nice guy.
“People were friendlier, it seemed like a great system… but then when you have a creepy dictator as prime minister, that’s what it is. The way he carried himself, the way he carried himself during this, the false way he communicated, it freaked me out, because I never thought that guy was like that,” Rogan said.
Rogan went after Trudeau for targeting truckers “without provocation” before invoking the Emergencies Act to quell peaceful demonstrations against overstepping COVID-19 mandates.
“I thought he was a handsome guy with a good vocabulary and he seems like a good guy,” Rogan said. “Before he really leaned into the awakening stuff, I thought he was a nice, sensitive guy, and I thought ‘that’s probably a good disposition to be a leader.'”
“The way he did it, he just threw a pejorative label at them with no evidence, no provocation. It was like, ‘I’m going to label them East so you can impose laws to prevent them from doing what is essentially a peaceful protest.’”
Rogan was not the only one to criticize Trudeau for his handling of protesters who oppose his policies.
During a House of Commons public safety committee meeting on Thursday, former deputy national defense minister and security adviser Richard Fadden told MPs that Trudeau went too far with his rhetoric in labeling protesters.
“I don’t think attacking opinions is helpful to anyone,” Fadden said. “Not for you, not for me, not for the prime minister. You can disagree with them… but I think the PM went a bit further than that, and I don’t think it’s helpful.”
“And it’s the kind of thing that reinforces the feeling that they’re not being heard. In fact, I do not agree with most of the views that were expressed in that general context, but that is neither here nor there. We need to find some means of dialogue… My argument is that we cannot start a priori by arguing that they are wrong”.
Fadden went on to say that politicians needed to find some way to have discussions with protesters instead of resorting to extreme measures; otherwise, he warned, it could lead people to resort to extremism.
“It can be argued that they should not engage in violence. That’s a completely different topic, and I want to separate it very carefully. You cross that line, you get involved in violence and you have to do something about it. We have to find some way to talk to them,” Fadden said.
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